SparkNotes Readers' Notes for As You Like It: What is to Shakespeare 'The Forest of Arden' in his play 'As You Like It'? What is to Shakespeare 'The Forest of Arden' in his play 'As You Like It'? by Shehanaz , December 09, 2013 9 out of 10 people found this helpful ‘AS YOU LIKE IT’- WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ************************************************************* AS YOU LIKE IT IS A SHAKESPEARE'S ROMANTIC COMEDY, BLENDING WITH LOVE-HEROISM-SENTIMENT-ADVENTURE-AND PURE FUN. THE FOREST IS MERELY A GOLDEN WORLD, BUT ITS CONTENTMENT HAS DEALT OF THE BITTER LESSONS OF LIFE. (DR.S.SEN) PRONOUNCE THE WORD 'ARDEN'-PERHAPS A PUN BY PRONOUNCING IT A-DEN-- A FOLIAGE OF MATERIALISTIC WORLD. ****************************************************** “The Forest of Arden, according to the play reflects the different -state -of -mind of the various characters of the play itself”-Discuss.

“There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Every story narrated or dramatized has an artistic structure which may be called its architectural design. The different elements of the story, technically known as the plot, are characters, incidents and the atmosphere born out of the union of these two. Characters unfolding themselves through incidents which often mould them,or incidents revealing characters through narration and dialogue, are so skillfully adapted to each other and vitally connected as ultimately to conceal the parts in the symmetrical beauty or realized harmony of the whole. Every interesting story arises out of a conflict, absence of which will make it dull and unexciting. There are, generally speaking, two main movements required to achieve this artistic result- a movement of Complication and a movement of Resolution. Between these two movements the plot will develop through many ups and downs which follow a well-regulated course. Structurally the natural divisions of a drama are fivefold, roughly corresponding to its five acts in the Elizabethan play.

“Truths that wake, Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour, Nor Man nor Boy, Nor all that is at enmity with joy, Can utterly abolish or destroy.” While Romance admits the comic spirit within a corner of the field, the area is strictly limited. Romance and the comic spirit cannot well live together on terms of equality. In Shakespearean comedy, the comic spirit has to minister to the purposes of Romance and not the other way about. The truth of this observation can be seen in how the characters of Benedick and Beatrice, though seen in a comic setting in the beginning, emerge finally as Romantic characters, with both of them acting as the Champions of hero who is subjected to such ill merited suffering. On a lower plane it is true of Dogberry and Verges also. As Peter Quennell says: “Dogberry like Bottom was intended to raise a cultured laughter.” Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden is an imaginary setting in As you Like it and it is futile and unnecessary to try and find its actual counterpart in the world- whether in France or in England. What matters is that the Forest of Arden has a significant role in As You like It.

“Pythagoras said, that this world, was like a stage Where many play their parts: the lookers on, the stage Philosophers are, saith he, whose part is to learn The manneres of all nations.” In such a place, in such an atmosphere, Love is the central light, the infallible intelligence, the chief source of life and happiness. And this love is identified primarily with a young woman. She is the Shakti of this universe; she is beauty, truth and rarity and inspires similar virtues (or values) in her lover. “For, boy, however we do praise ourselves, Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn Than women’s are.’’ In Shakespeare’s mature comedy-it is worth remembering that in comedy Ben Jonson put him above the classics- he presents ‘a harmonious society in which each person’s individuality is fully developed and yet is in perfect tune with all others’. While keeping to the old principle that comedy portrays characters, he profoundly modified it by deepening and strengthening each separate character, developing the relations between different characters, until the characters became the plot. As You Like It has a systematically worked–out plot.

Its principal plot is to illustrate the ultimate happy fate or the denouement of pair of lovers after passing through some struggles and difficulties. This is the story of the love between Orlando and Rosalind. Round about it there are three sub-plots, having the same theme of love between pairs. These sub-plots merge into the main plot in such a way as to leave no impression of their independent existence. The sub-plots are- the love between Oliver and Celia, the love between Silvius and Phebe, the love between Touchstone and Audrey. All these have happy endings in marriage. The aim of the dramatist in constructing these subplots is to produce the impression that the atmosphere of the play is one of genuine, undiluted love, serenity, joy and peace. The governing idea of the dramatist in constructing the plots of Gloucester and Edmund as a parallel to the main plot of Lear and his daughters. “I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano, A stage where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one,” Arden is not untouched by the world of reality and its sorrows, but it is a place where those who come to it discover certain abiding truths about life.

The characters get a conviction that gay and the gentle can endure the rubs of fortune to find happiness in them and in others on this earth. The characters also realize certain truths. The masque of Hymen marks the end of this interlude in the greenwood, and announces the return to a court purged of envy and baseness. As in all comedy the characters realize the truth about themselves through trial and error, and the change is for the better. Thus Rosalind as Ganymede discovers she can play no more but must accept Orlando’s love. By loving a shadow, the mere image of a charming youth, Phebe discovers that it is better love than to be loved and scorn one’s lover. If we consult the evidence of the play it will be abundantly clear that Love-at-first-sight is the main theme of the comedy, As You Like It. All the lovers in this play, courtiers as well as rustics, follow this kind of love. Rosalind and Orlando fall in love with each other the moment they see each other; and the rest of the lovers following the same course.

Such a conception of love is romantic, and Shakespeare has employed unhesitatingly for no less than four pairs of lovers, two from the higher and two from the lower class of society, follow such a mode of romantic love. Whether one agrees or not with such a mode of love one cannot but observe that in this play this motive of love eventuates in the happiness of all the lovers. In a Romantic Comedy, the main stress is on the story of these loves-a story, says Mark Hunter, “treated seriously, moving through a number of checks and trying complications to a prosperous ending.” It is, besides, “ a story not only of high life, but of the highest in each particular case possibly”, but allied to the main story, there are invariably other stories also, but-like silk threads, of diverse colours-all are cunningly woven into a single texture: “Through complexity of plot if secured a compensating variety, both variety of character-interest, and variety of delight afforded by the alternation of two or more Romantic themes, together with a greater or lesser admixture of pure Comedy, not Romantic.” That Shakespeare is an artist hardly needs asserting in the present day.

It is true that his art was probably far less self conscious that that of Milton or of Tennyson, that it was probably more intuitive than aforethought. The distinction, however, is probably not so important as its seems. A great artist does not need rules or conscious analysis to tell him what is good and what is evil. Any analysis that may be necessary may be done sub-consciously. “Shallow. “Here comes fair Mistress Anne. Would I be young for your sake, Mistress Anne. Anne. The dinner is on the table.”’ The presentation of love on the stage is fraught with grave dangers even when attempted by a great artist; for it has a natural tendency towards degenerating into the ridiculous. Lyric poetry remained the appropriate domain for love’s expression in creative. It was only post-Renaissance dramatists who made a bold experiment in introducing love as an absorbing theme in drama. In the Elizabethan age romantic love often became the main ingredient of novels and dramas. To Elizabethan people “to live be to love, and to love was to love romantically.

That was for them a fact of experience.” It was left to Shakespeare and his great contemporaries to achieve a mystical alliance between comedy and romance and to elevate comedy from the region of the farcical and the ludicrous to the realm of the poetic and the romantic. A note of high seriousness often characterized a comedy of love, As You Like it. It is replete with different portrayals of love. “I have seen the day, with good biting falchion, I would have made them skip: I am old now. And these same crosses spoil me.” Like Thomas Hardy’s Edgon Heath, Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden is not simply a background of the plot; nay it is itself a character, perhaps the most important character of the play. “It has its own soul, a vital breath- that possesses the greatest reformative and constructive power.

It reforms the wicked, selfish and cruel Oliver; it softens the aching hearts of the weary pilgrims, who come to it; it brings about a reconciliation between the Dukes, and finally, it is the Forest Of Arden which unties the separate lovers-Orlando and Rosalind- infusing a spirit of love into other characters.” “If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber’d here While these visions did appear.” “The play treats of the gifts of Nature and the ways of Fortune. Orlando, given little is brought too much. Rosalind and Celia, born too much, are brought to little. The Duke, born to all things, is brought to nothing. The usurping Duke, born to nothing climbs too much, desires all, and at last, renounces all. Oliver born too much, aims all little more, loses all, and at last, renounces all. Touchstone, the wordly-wise, marries a fool Audrey, born a clown, marries a courtier. Phebe, scorning a man falls in love with a woman.

The play is a little picture of this world, as Hallam observes, but it is a picture in mellow and soothing colours of gaiety.” “I am much sorry, sir, You put me to forget a lady’s manners, By being so verbal.” The practical value of the songs in the play was to entertain the audience with music. The Elizabethans were great lovers of music and they always welcomed songs. While he conceded to the popular demand for songs he introduced into them some significance on the context in which they were sung. In As you Like It we have half a dozen songs primarily intended to heighten the psychological effect of the scene in which they are sung. For instance the song in the Forest scene beginning with “Blow, blow thou winter wind,” has the effect of intensifying the pathos of the situation. The sense of ingratitude under which the banished Duke is acutely suffering is made more poetical and so endurable, by the beauty of the song and aptness of its sentiments.

In the songs of country life which this play contains we find a different significane.These songs (“Under the greenwood tree”) heighten the sense of rural bliss and innocence by expressing through musical words and serenity and peace that pervades the countryside. Thus we may say that the songs in Shakespeare’s generally serve the purpose of intensifying the effect of the scenes and situations in which they are introduced. The world of Arden has not the rarefied atmosphere of an unearthly region; this forest is emphatically real and feelingly earthy. It is subject to the change of seasons; eternal spring does not reign here. The struggle for existence is as acute here as in the city. The shepherd and the shepherdess are not ideal and innocent persons of the golden age breathing the idyllic atmosphere of Arcadia. A heartless coquette like Phebe and an ‘ill-favoured’ Audrey easily capable of deserting her true love for becoming the snobbish wife of a courtier, are found to dwell within its extensive air.

Boas says: “The sentimentality of the orthodox pastoral is entirely absent, and in its place we have the ruddy vigour, the leaping pulse and play of the open-air life that ‘loves to live in the sun’. Never has the charm of outdoor existence found more matchless expression.” As You Like It owes its charm and beauty to the flavor love that pervades the plot. The drama maintains a number of love episodes, which as a matter of fact spring from the main fountain- love between Orlando and Rosalind, but there is another touch of love in the play, which distinguishes it from most of the Shakespearean comedies. It is the innocent yet sincere and penetrating love between the two cousins Rosalind and Celia. “What would you have, Your gentleness shall force, More than your force move us to gentleness.” It is to be noted that the first impression of Arden is not very attractive to any of those who escape to it. “Well, this is the forest of Arden,” says Rosalind in apparently unenthusiastic tones. Touchstone calls himself foolish for having come there. The Forest of Arden is no conventional Arcadia.

It is not a place where the laws of Nature are abrogated and roses are without thorns. Life’s roughness is very much in evidence in Arden. The herd abandons the wounded deer. Winter and rough weather, the season’s differences, the icy fangs and churlish chiding of the winter’s wind invade Arden as often as they invade this hemisphere of ours. Nor does Manna fall to it from heaven. One may come by a sufficient sustenance of flesh ,if one has the weapons and the impulse to make a breach in the conventionality of idyllic Nature by killing its own creatures, the deer, to whom the Forest is assigned a native dwelling place. Rosalind and Orlando will return to live their adult life in the society of men and in civilization, which will impose upon them their duties of extended social responsibilities. “Come, woo me, for now I am in a Holiday humour and like enough to consent.” It is easy to see how As You Like It conforms to the conventions of the pastoral tradition. We find, for example, a plentiful crop of rustic scenes and situations of shepherdess, and all the other associations of a pastoral life.

Even the principal figure of the comedy the heroine herself, takes to the life and manners of the shepherds in the major portion of the play. Rosalind buys the estate of a shepherd in the Forest of Arden and lives the life of simplicity and unsophisticated innocence. Besides, it is as a disguised shepherd youth that Rosalind appears in her best wit and intelligence. Her mock wooing of Orlando, her complications as a girl in the dress of a boy and, finally, her splendid resources of wit in reducing all these complications to an easy and happy ending- all these prove that Shakespeare exploited the pastoral convention in the service of comedy. The songs are a notable feature of As You Like It. The forest would be dead without them. They are all old and plain; no luscious madrigals or quaint eclogues but songs of the greenwood and the holly, of the chase and country love. The themes are all the better for being old-fashioned: they awake the echoes of Robin Hood, and their music and association help not a little to convey that open air feeling that pervades the play, and which mere convey that open air feeling that pervades the play and which mere description cannot always impart.

Here the sylvan predominates over pastoral; we are in Sherwood not in Arcadia, as J.C. Smith says. “He that brings this love to thee Little knows this love in me: And by him seal up thy mind; Whether that thy youth and kind Will the faithful offer take Of me and all that I can make; Or else by him my love deny, And then I’ll study how to die.” By a pastoral comedy we mean a play in which the characters belong to the rustic class, specially shepherds and shepherdesses. The situations of such plays are romantically simple and pure and innocent, and the story usually delineates the peaceful and enviable life of these figures that love and enjoy life in an ideal fashion. They have no cares and burdens. They always get what they wish, and they end in a happy atmosphere of joy and felicity. Such, in the main, are the elements of a pastoral story whether in fiction or in drama.

“Thus men may grow wiser every day; it is the first time that ever I heard breaking of ribs was sport for ladies.” Shakespeare builds up his ideal world and lets his idealists scorn the real one, but into their midst he introduces people who mock their ideals and others who mock them. One must not say that Shakespeare never judges but one judgment is always being modified by another. Opposite views may contradict one another but of course, they do not cancel out. Instead they add up to an all embracing view far larger and more satisfying than any one of them by itself. As You Like It belongs to the group of plays consisting of Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night which are splendid specimens of Shakespearean’s mastery of the comic and dramatic art. These plays are characteristic Elizabethan romantic comedies- plays which satisfied the curiously Elizabethan demand for drama catering to the romantic as well as the comic instinct of the audiences. Neither the extreme of idealism nor those of materialism, as they are variously represented, emerge as “the good life” in As You Like It. through the device of contrast an effective balanced view emerges.

“West of this place, down in the neighbor bottom; The rank osiers by the murmuring stream Left on your right hand brings you to the place. But at this hour the house doth keep itself; There’s none within.” We may, however, note one thing while discussing As You Like It as a pastoral comedy. The pastoral creation of the ancient writers usually verge on the improbable and almost fantastic side. This results in the impression of artificiality in an endeavour to escape from it, but in the consummate art of Shakespeare even the idealization which is inevitable in the application of the pastoral convention is touched with probability and realism with the result that his characters remain endearingly human. Their motives may be romantic but their passions and sentiments are human and worldly-wise. In other words, it may be said that in Shakespeare’s hands the pastoral convention is humanized. The union of Rosalind and Orlando in happy wedlock has been the objective aimed at from the beginning and this is now finally attained, but the crowning achievement of the heroine lies not only in her own happiness but also in winning happiness for others. All the different pairs of lovers have their heart’s desire fulfilled-it is As You Like It.

“We that are true lovers run into strange capers; But as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature In love mortal in folly.” The purpose of the Exposition is ‘to put the audience in possession of all information that is essential for the property understanding of the play.’ It prepares us for the aviation, but it is really independent of the plot proper. In As You Like It the preliminary information consists chiefly of : (a) the banishment of the elder Duke, the unexpected presence of his only daughter Rosalind at the usurper’s court, and (b) the will of Sir Rowland de Boys and the ill-treatment of Orlando at the hands of his elder brother Oliver. Thus the two main threads out of which the love story will be woven are suggested e even at the outset; the hero and the heroine have been introduced in the midst of circumstances which are strikingly similar in many respects. The Wrestling Match is the initial incident which starts the action: and the seed of this great love is shown here. Here is also the genesis of the main conflict between our hero and the heroine on one side and Oliver and the usurper ranged against them on the other.

“O my life, his malice’s against the lady Will suddenly break forth.” “Other and inferior writers would have worked out their descriptions with all pettiness and impertinence of detail” says Coleridge, regarding the pastoral atmosphere created by Shakespeare. In fact Shakespeare has not cared to describe at large these pictured of pastoral scenery: he has as the master artist adopted the unique method of subtle suggestion. By a few strokes of the painter’s brush he has succeeded in creating not only the appropriate pastoral back ground but also a vast and vivid woodland scene studded with some landmarks,e.g., he Duke’s cave, Rosalind’s cottage, the antique oak, and the crawling brook. So superb has been the success of this delineation that we seem to breathe ‘the very breath of the woods and the mountains’. Public theatres of the Elizabethan age had no painted scenes. The dramatist had thus to depend entirely on his own poetic art and his power of stimulating their imaginative capacity of his audience. There are two levels of awareness at work in the scene. The audience’s awareness is at one with Rosalind’s; Orlando’s awareness falls short. To this extent, the climactic scene is structurally simple.

But in, very simplicity it is magnificient.The compensation for the lack of complexity comes the wooing scene in As You Like It is different from similar scenes in Shakespearean comedies. There is in this play different level of awareness and ignorance which make the wing scene all the more interesting dramatically and thematically. The wooing scene, in fact, is the climax as far as the theme of ignorance and awareness is concerned. As Rosalind disguised as Ganymede questions and argues with Orlando who does not know Ganymede’s identity, there is much fun as well as serious comment implicit for audience. “For thou thyself hast been a libertine As sensual as the brutish sting itself; And all the embossed sores, and headed evils, That thou with license of free foot hast caught, Wouldst thou disgorge into the general world.” In the width of the discrepancy in the awareness of the lovers. The wooing scene deliberately exploits this gap in the awareness of the lovers. The wooing scene deliberately exploits this gap in the awareness. The exploitation is not thin. Neither the relation of the participants nor the situation changes at all during the action. At the beginning, Rosalind knows everything and Orlando nothing; it is the same at the end.

However, at the end of the scene. Rosalind’s conviction about Orlando’s love has received a final confirmation. There is a blending of the magic and the comic even in the sunny, joyous and bright comedy of As You Like it. Thus the play opens with a quarrel between the brothers-Oliver and Orlando. The former makes attempts to take the life of the latter. We also get distinctly tragic elements in the sorrow of the banished Duke, which he philosophies away; in the melancholy of Rosalind due to the banishment of her father, which is dispelled by the cheery optimism of Celia; in the pathetic fate of the three unfortunate sons of the old man, who are injured by the wrestler. There is also something like the tragic element in the disappointment of Silvius regarding Phebe. These tragic elements are harmoniously, delicately, and artistically blended with and merged into the comic elements. The court milieu at the beginning of AS You Like It then, is one in which disorder flourishes. Life in the Forest of Arden is contrasted with “that of painted pomp” with the perilous life in “the envious court”.

This is the “court versus country” theme which recurs in Shakespeare in other plays. The fidelity and conscience piousness of the old servant Adam are contrasted by Orlando with the general rule that obtains in this environment. And it is Adam himself who gives what is perhaps the most striking evidence of the disorder that is rampant. It may be well to point out that Shakespeare does not believe that court life must necessarily be corrupt and disordered. In fact he is concerned in As You Like It to point out by implication that escapism is no solution: at the end of the play, we have most of the exiles returning from the Forest of Arden, and we are clearly meant to understand that the court environment has been rid of its evil. Disorder has been set right. “Nay, I care not for their names; they owe me nothing. Will you sing?” In the true order of things a man’s graces and virtues should assist him in his life, but here a man’s virtues are a danger to him, exciting the envy of others. The true order of things is inverted.

Speaking to Orlando he says: “O, what a world is this, when what is comely Envenoms him that bears it!” The Forest has a great deal of influence on the people who stray into it. We see the shady dark green landscape in the background and breathe in imagination the fresh air of the forest. The hours are here measured by no clocks, no regulated recurrence of duty or toil; they flow on unnumbered in voluntary occupation or fanciful idleness, to which every one addicts himself according to his humour or disposition; and this unlimited freedom compensated all of them for the lost conveniences of life. One throws himself down solitary under a tree, and indulges in melancholy reflections on the changes of fortune; others make the woods resound with social and festive songs to the accompaniment of their horns. Selfishness, envy, and ambition have been left in the city behind them. The wit of touchstone is a dainty kind of absurdity worth comparison with the melancholy of Jaques.

And Orlando in the beauty and strength of early manhood, and Rosalind-“a gallant curtle axe upon her thigh, a broad spear in her hand, and the bright tender, loyal womanhood, within”-are figures which quicken and restore our spirits. But upon, no one does the air of Arden work as powerfully as upon the banished Duke. He extracts some useful lessons from his life of banishment in the forest. He draws a contrast between “painted pomp” of court life and the life of careless ease in the Forest of Arden. The life at court is full of envy, malice and ambition. But of, the forest life is sweeter and more “free from peril.” But even, when he shrinks from the cold winter wind, he feels it is better than the flattering courtiers. While the courtiers at court are only enemies in disguise, the cold wind is an open enemy and does not flatter him. The Duke also realizes the sweet uses of adversity. The forest life has many things to teach. Every object in Nature has a lesson of its own. He finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones and good in everything.

“Thou art not for the fashion of these times. Where none will sweat but for promotion. And having that, do choke their service up Even with the having; it is not so with thee.” “The dramatist presents us with a pastoral comedy of the characters of which , instead of belonging to the ideal pastoral age, are true copies of what nature will produce under similar conditions” (Halliwell). The pastoral poet of convention clothed courtiers in the shepherds’ dress and put into mouths sentiments of an advances civilization. Shakespeare, on the other hand, has given us real shepherds-Corin and William and Audrey, “whose language is the language of the fields, whose hands saviour of the wood and sheep, and whose persons exhale the odour of the goat-pen or the dairy” as Stanley Wood says, but the characters of Rosalind, Orlando and Duke are certainly ideal ones-although like every ideal, they are based on the actual; they represent experiences idealized. “Well, I’ll end the song. Sirs, cover the while; the duke will drink under this tree.

He hath been all this day to look you.” ****************************************************** “My fortunes were more able to relieve her; But I am shepherd to another man, And do not shear the fleeces that I graze:” **************************************** Shakespeare's 'As You Like It'- Forest vs Court Setting Shakespeare Expert By Lee Jamieson As You Like It is set in a forest, but it is difficult to be clear about the As You Like It setting. Some argue that it is the Forest of Arden that once surrounded Shakespeare’s hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon; others believe that the As You Like It setting is in Ardennes, France. Forest Vs Court The forest is presented in a more favourable light in that the “goodies”, Duke Senior and his court, reside there. All of the good characters in the court are banished or exiled to the forest at the start of the play. Duke Senior describes the court as “painted pomp…the envious court”.

He goes on to say that in the forest the dangers are real but natural and are preferable to those in the court “The …churlish chiding of the winter’s wind… even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say This is no flattery” (Act 2, Scene 1). He suggests the harsh conditions of the forest are preferable to the pomp and false flattery in the court: That at least in the forest, things are honest. continue reading below our video Test Your General Science Knowledge This could be compared to the Courtly love between Orlando and Rosalind and the bawdy, primitive but honest love between Touchstone and Audrey. There are also reflections of Robin Hood and his merry men in the lives of Duke Senior and his supporters: “…there they live like the old Robin Hood of England” (Charles; Act 1, Scene 1). This reinforces the positive depiction of the forest as opposed to the negative portrayal of the court. When the evil characters enter the forest they have a sudden change of heart as discussed – suggesting the forest has healing properties.

There is therefore a sense of foreboding at the end of the play when the characters are to be restored to the court…we hope that they will bring some of the natural qualities of forest life with them when they return. In this Shakespeare may be suggesting that there needs to be a balance between forest and court; living with nature and using your senses should be balanced with living in an ordered, political world where education and social politeness is necessary. If one is too close to nature they may turn out like Touchstone and Audrey but if they are too political they may become more like Duke Frederick. Duke Senior has struck a happy balance – being educated and gentlemanly having the ability to manage people but also appreciating nature and its offerings. Class and Social structures The struggle between forest and court also sheds light on the class struggle at the core of the play. Celia disguises her nobility to become a poor woman Aliena in the forest. She does this in order to protect herself, presumably from those who would try and steal from her. This gives her a freedom she has never enjoyed. Oliver falls for her dressed as Aliena and we know as a result, that his motives are honourable – he is not after her money.

This is important in that previously, Oliver’s motives have been questionable. Touchstone and Audrey are seen as more lowly characters but as discussed, are possibly perceived as more honest as a result, they are unable to social climb and therefore don’t need to flatter and lie their way to the top. Duke Senior is happier in the forest without the trappings of his dukedom. Shakespeare may be suggesting in As You Like It, that just because you are considered to be ‘high class’ it is not necessarily reflected in your nature – or that in order to social climb one needs to lie and flatter and therefore people at the top of society are the worst kind of people. However, at the end of the play when the Duke is restored to the court we are led to believe that the court will be a better place but perhaps because he has witnessed first hand what it is like to be poor. He is compared to Robin Hood and as such is considered ‘of the people’.

Setting: The Forest of Arden by Manuel Jacquez | OSU As You Like It OSU As You Like It Setting: The Forest of Arden by Manuel Jacquez The Forest of Arden: Remembering the Past by Manuel Jacquez “As I remember, Adam…” The quote above is the beginning of the first line of As You Like It. Orlando is speaking to his servant, Adam, recounting his father’s passing and his brother Oliver’s refusal to provide him a proper education and upbringing. Like many of Shakespeare’s other plays, the first scene begins with two characters in the middle of a conversation, discussing recent events. Typically, this is a standard storytelling device in order to provide exposition to the reader/spectator of the play. In this instance; however, this first bit of dialogue hints at a greater purpose in regard to the setting and themes within the play. Most of the play is set in a forest called, “Arden.” The name of this forest could be a combination of the word “ Arcadia ,” the classical name of earthly paradise, with “Eden,” the name of the biblical paradise in Genesis.

“Arden” was also the maiden name of Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden, whose distant and highly revered family owned an actual Forest of Arden in Warwickshire, England, northwest of Stratford. “Arden” could also simply be an Anglicized version of “Ardenne,” the forest in Thomas Lodge’s Rosalynde , one of Shakespeare’s sources. The first line of As You Like It leads us down two paths into the past. The first guides the reader/spectator to think of the biblical Garden of Eden, starting with the inclusion of a character named Adam. Often portrayed as old and decrepit, Adam is a wearied elderly man from a different generation. Old Adam journeying into the Forest of Arden prompts us to think back onto idyllic state of the earth before the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. There are other allusions to Eden within the play such as the greenwood tree that Amiens sings of and the trees that Orlando carves upon, alluding to the Tree of Knowledge. There is even a snake that slithers toward the villainous Oliver while he is sleeping within the forest toward the end of the play.

Encouraging the reader/spectator to think of the Garden of Eden, in addition to the exploring the popular concept of corrupt court and idyllic country life, As You Like It also enters a discussion on “Golden Age philosophy.” A classical term used by Greek and Roman poets, the Golden Age refers to a utopian first age of humanity. In comparison, the poets viewed all civilizations and societies, including their own, that followed to be a devolution of this time of perfection. By evoking a nostalgia for the lost innocence and purity of the Garden of Eden, As You Like It participates in this way of thinking by suggesting the moral decay of society embodied by the corruption at court is a product of time. Large 17th centurry tapestry depicting Warwickshire including Stratford-Upon-Avon and the Forest of Arden (from the British Museum’s “ Shakespeare: Staging the World ” exhibit) “Shakespeare’s Arden in As You Like It is close to home, though not home itself–and he took care to retain some of the more fantastic bits from Lodge , the lions and snakes and palm trees that made clear that this was an imaginary world. As usual, Shakespeare managed to have it both ways.

But it’s also the closest he would come to exploring the depth of his investment in his native Arden. … Writing about it [“the great forest of Arden”] must have stirred conflicting feelings in Shakespeare, for the play, in its disorienting shifts between woodland and pastoral landscapes, juxtaposes the romanticized Arden that stirred his imagination as a child with the realistic Arden that Shakespeare, sharp observer of land and people, witnessed as an adult.” –James Shapiro, 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (241-242) As the quote above illustrates, the second destination that the first line of As You Like It can lead us to is Shakespeare’s past. By stressing the significance of remembrance, Shakespeare’s family history and lineage must have been at the forefront of his mind. Shakespeare’s grandfather Robert Arden, a prosperous farmer, did not hold a significant place in his famous family, but having the family name of Arden and an, albeit distant, connection to Edward Arden of Park Hall provided increased social capital that was bestowed to him and his daughter Mary.

With the adoption of his father’s last name, William Shakespeare was not born with any overt indicator that he had a nobler heritage like his mother. The juxtaposition that Shapiro describes between the romanticized woodland and the realistic pastoral landscapes of the Forest of Arden may also be a juxtaposition of Shakespeare’s two families, comparing and contrasting the woods owned by his wealthy and famous distant relatives and the rural countryside of Stratford filled with sheep and shepherds that he grew up in. Evidently desirous of restoring the connection to his mother’s side of the family; in 1559, the same year As You Like It was performed and likely written, Shakespeare successfully applied to have the Arden arms added to the Shakespeare family coat of arms. Rather than being solely concerned with remembering the past, As You Like It is more focused on recapturing it. In many respects, the play is a discussion and even more so a celebration of the concept of restoration. The stars aligning happy ending of four happy marriages, two villains’ repentance, and the Old Duke’s return to power reveal Shakespeare’s, although possibly unrealistic, fanciful optimistism of recovering the grandeur of the past in As You Like It.

Manuel Jacquez is an MA/PhD Candidate at The Ohio State University. His current research explores the variance in staging practices in the private indoor playhouses and the public outdoor amphitheaters in Early Modern London. This is the Penguin Classics UK book cover for As You Like It, which can be found on the publisher’s website . The cover includes many of the play’s important symbols, such as the snake, sheep, and deer, while the instrument hints at the importance of music in this play. What makes this cover most interesting is how it captures the mood of the play through bright colors and emphasizes its pastoral elements. The tree and the snake hanging from it readily evoke the Garden of Eden. -Julia Hart Share this: The Arden Circle | Seattle Shakespeare Company Seattle Shakespeare Company The Arden Circle The Forest of Arden is the setting for Shakespeare’s play As You Like It—a magical place, where unique coincidences occur, strange apparitions appear, and people are transformed through self-discovery. As a member of Seattle Shakespeare Company’s Arden Circle, you are a key partner in bringing magic to our stages today and into the future.

Members of the Arden Circle provide critical support for Seattle Shakespeare Company’s growth and development through a multi-year, sustaining pledge of $1,500 or more. Learn more by reviewing our Arden Circle Membership & Benefits Overview or by contacting John Bradshaw, Managing Director at 206-733-8228. Ready to join? Give John a ring or send him an email , and he can walk you through filling out your Arden Circle Pledge Form . Heart of England: The Forest of Arden The Forest of Arden A wide footpath inside Crakley Wood The part of Warwickshire North-West of the river Avon was the old Forest of Arden. The name still occurs in the several place names in the region: Hampton-in-Arden and Henley-in-Arden. Much of the Forest of Arden was cleared during the Middle Ages, and some of it earlier. By the time of Domesday, 1086, about 35% of North West Warwickshire is known to have been wooded. Despite clearance, the entire area today still retains a wooded character.

Everywhere can be seen oak trees, in small copses, in hedgerows, or marking places where hedgerows have been. Woodland Clearings - Place Names Some useful evidence comes to us in the form of Anglo-Saxon place names. Old oaks liine the B4113 near Stoneleigh The names of many villages in the Arden area end with "ley" or "leigh", a Saxon suffix meaning "woodland clearing", and these settlements may have been cleared in Saxon times. There are some 85 such place names in Warwickshire, almost all within the Forest of Arden area. The name is rare in Warwickshire outside the Arden region (only 4 occurences outside). A "leah" could be either a man-made clearing, or a natural glade or open space. Some place names are based on the name of a family, but many have simple woodland meanings.

Here are a few: An old oak frames the Manor House at Baddesley Clinton Allesley, Ansley (hermitage in a leah), Aspley (aspen leah), Astley (eastern leah), Baddesley-Clinton (leah owned by Clinton), Baddesley-Ensor (leah owned by Ednesouere), Bentley (bent grass leah), Birchley (birch leah), Botley (bot=firewood), Canley, Corley (cranes forest), Crackley, Darley (deer leah), Fillongley, Haseley (hazel leah), Henley (high leah), Honiley (honey leah), Ipsley (leah on a hill), Keresley, Kingley, Knightley, Langley (long leah), Oakley (oak wood), Pinley (pinn=slope), Pooley (pool leah), Ragley (rag=moss leah), Ratley (rot=merry), Saltley (sallow=willow), Shelley (leah on slope), Shirley (shire leah, where a moot is held), Shrewley (sheriff's leah), Stone

leigh (stony leah), Studley (pasture for horses), Tackley (tack=sheep), Walmley (warm leah), Waverley (waver=brushwood), Whitley (white leah), Willey (willow leah), Windley (winn=meadow).

Footpath from Preston Bagot leading to Henley-in-Arden Such place names are evident in the three photos above, which were taken at Crack-ley, Stone-leigh, and Baddes-ley. And also in the photo right, taken near Hen-ley. Virtually no Roman roads cross the region. It has been suggested that this was due to the difficulty of building roads through woodland. The dominant tree in the Arden area of Warwickshire is oak. In some villages approximately 90% of the large trees are oaks. The subsoil here is a generally a heavy deep clay. Digging a small hole, after about 9 inches down will hit clay, which is what oaks like, and many other trees don't. This heavy clay soil is less favourable to agriculture and so was less susceptible to being cleared for farmland. The Geology of the Area The Arden area is effectively bounded by Roman roads (shown in red on this map), the Fosse Way on the East side, and the Salt Road along the Southern boundary. The area of the Forest of Arden correlates with an area of underlying Mercia Mudstone (shown in light brown) and Carboniferous Sandstones (grey).

Sherwood Forest lies 40 miles to the North, on the same band of Mercia Mudstone, which forms a narrow arc across England. The contrasting area of Warwickshire South-East of the Avon consists of much more open countryside. This overlays a band of Jurassic Lias Clay soils (shown in dark brown). In contrast to the Arden, the South-East area of Warwickshire is traditionally known as Feldon. The historian Dugdale speaks of the Avon dividing the "wooded part" from the Feldon. Shakespeare's Arden View outside Stratford, more typical of the landscape today The Forest of Arden is the setting for Shakespeare's play As You Like It. Besides the Forest of Arden in Warwickshire, there are two similary named woodlands in France. Shakespeare's play is an adaption of an earlier story written by Thomas Lodge, which was originally set in one of the French woodlands. By a coincidence Arden also happened to be the name of the woodland around Shakespeare's home, and also, by another coincidence Arden was the maiden name of Shakespeare's mother. In Shakespeare's mind the woodland imagary would have come from his local wood. Shakespeare seems to have compared Arden with the Biblical Eden.

The idylic ife inside the forest contrasts with the "fallen" world outside the forest. There are several allusions to the Biblical story in the play. The Forest is a magical place, where strange coincidences occur, strange apparitions appear, and where people are transformed through self-discovery, or by finding love. Modern Regeneration of Forest of Arden In 1989, the UK Countryside Commision were investigating the possibility of creating a new National Forest. The combined local authorities of the Warwickshire area proposed a plan to regenerate the Forest of Arden. This map, from their proposal document, shows the proposed area of the new forest. This would have been similar to the area of the original forest, with the exceptions that the City of Coventry, and the Eastern perimeter of Birmingham, which did lie within the old forest, would have been excluded from the new forest. The new forest would not have extended South beyond Warwick. This is not a plan to introduce wall-to-wall forest, but to increase the proportion of land under woodland. The plan would have involved planting 150 million trees, including a high proportion of oak, in the area. For various political and economic reasons, no progress has been made to accomplish this.

There is one notable modern forestation scheme in the area. This is a private initiative being run by Mr Felix Dennis, owner of the lad's magazine Maxim. Mr Dennis is buying between 10,000 and 20,000 acres of land across South Warwickshire, at a cost of up to £200M, specifically for the purpose of planting new broadleaf woodlands. British Native Trees There are 32 species of native British trees: alder, crab apple, ash, aspen, beech, birch (2 species), box, wild cherry (2), elm, hawthorn (2), hazel, holly, hornbeam, juniper, lime (2), maple, oak (2), scots pine, poplar, rowan, service tree, whitebeam, willow (4) and yew. Inside Withycombe Wood, near Stratford The ecological values of trees can be measured by the number of different insects they host. Oak hosts 284 species; followed by willow (266); birch (229) and blackthorn (149).

Sweet and horse chestnuts are popular as specimen trees on village greens in Warwickshire, but are foreign imports. Horse chestnut was introduced, in the 16th century from Turkey, and only hosts 4 insects. The dominant tree in the Arden area of Warwickshire is oak. Silver birch is common (the 2nd most common tree in English woodlands) and grows very quickly. Ground left open here will first be covered by bramble and birch, and then, as oak grows up through and over it, the oak takes over. Elm used to be common in Warwickshire hedgerows, but was mainly wiped out by Dutch Elm disease about 10 years ago. Short History of British Woodlands During the last ice age, 12,000 years ago, there were no trees at all across England. At the end of the ice age, trees began to move northwards from Southern Europe. 5,000 years ago, England was largely covered by wildwood. Pollen analysis shows that the commonest tree, throughout central and southern England was the lime. Inside Crackley Wood Much of the extensive natural woodland covering of England was cleared in pre-Roman times.

By the time of the Norman Conquest only around 15% of England remained wooded. Substantial areas of woodland remained in Warwickshire and Middlesex. These pre-Norman woodlands were not deserted wall-to-wall-forest, but contained within them clearings, natural and man-made, and thriving communities, raising pigs and other livestock, and sustainable harvesting of timber for building and for charcoal. 1066 - Norman Conquest. The Norman Kings wished to claim large areas of woodland for sport, and introduced the concept of Royal Forest. These designated areas included both wood, meadow and farmland. About 25% of England was brought under "Forest Law", with severe penalties for poaching the King's game. In the 12th Century the Royal Forests became means for raising money, though fines and other mechanisms. Nobilty could buy leases from the Crown to farm areas of the Forest. By the 16th Century English Kings had ambitions for national power and independence particularly against Catholic Spain. This demanded charcoal for iron, and timber for shipbuilding. The tanning of leather required the use of oak bark, which was another major demand specifically for oak. Large areas of forest were sold to enterprising nobility.

A third of the entire Forest of Dean was felled in one year. The 17th Century marked England's rise as a seafaring nation. To build a single large warship required 2,000 mature oaks. Only 12% of England remained wooded, and declining woodland became cause for concern. Within 80 years the number of oaks in Sherwood Forest alone had dwindled from 23,000 to 1,300. By the 18th Century there was a shortage of naval timber, and the start of programs to plant new forest. By the end of the 18th Century several millions of new trees had been planted.

Posted by SparkNotes: As You Like It: Key Facts As You Like It full title · As You Like It author · William Shakespeare time and place written · 1598–1600; London, England date of first publication · First published in the Folio of 1623 publisher · Isaac Jaggard and Edmund Blount tone · Comic, romantic setting (place) · France, primarily the fictional Forest of Ardenne protagonist · Rosalind major conflict · Rosalind and Orlando fall in love, but Rosalind is unjustly banished from Duke Frederick’s court; Orlando is both denied his birthright by his jealous brother Oliver and forced to flee from the vindictive Duke Frederick. rising action · In order to teach Orlando how to be a proper husband to her, Rosalind disguises herself as a young man named Ganymede and instructs him in the ways of love. climax · Rosalind promises to marry Orlando and gets Phoebe to agree to marry Silvius, should things go awry with her beloved Ganymede, who is actually Rosalind in disguise.

falling action · Rosalind, appearing as herself, marries Orlando, and Phoebe marries Silvius. themes · The delights of love; the malleability of the human experience; city life versus country life motifs · Artifice; homoeroticism; exile symbols · Orlando’s poems; the slain deer; Ganymede foreshadowing · Rosalind’s uncharacteristically awkward first encounter with Orlando anticipates the depth of her affection for him. More Help Forest of Arden Forest of Arden Photo Gallery Forest of Arden Modjeska’s century-old house, Arden, today a National Historical Landmark, still stands in its live oak grove on the banks of Santiago Creek in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains, about eleven miles east of today’s community of Lake Forest. After being privately owned for many years, the historic house now belongs to the County of Orange and is open to the public for guided visitor tours. To the pioneer settlers of Orange County, Modjeska’s “Forest of Arden” was an idyllic incarnation of the California Dream.

Visitors wrote of the rambling white frame house, the green lawns and the rose gardens, the wishing well and the rustic bridges across the creek, the woodpeckers and the humming birds. She named her rustic retreat “Arden” for Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden setting for his pastoral play, “As You Like It”. Friends and admirers loved to think of the great polish actress as she walked through the forest reciting her roles. Modjeska and her husband, Karol Bozenta Chlapowski, had first seen the canyon site during their Anaheim sojourn in 1876, when it was a 160 acre mountain homestead owned by a pioneer couple Joseph and Maria Refugio Pleasants. Seven years later, on a California vacation visit, the Chlapowskis bought a half-interest in the homestead. In 1888 after the death of Maria Refugio, they bought the remaining interest, plus additional land along the creek, and made plans for a substantial addition to the original Pleasants dwelling. For assistance, they called upon the gifted young New York architect, Stanford White, destined to become the most famous designer of his time.

Probably working from photographs and sketches, White kept the original twin-gabled Pleasants dwelling as the low east end of the house, planned a matching west structure as a new bedroom wing, and set a large, picturesque gabled section in the center. Although Stanford White never saw Santiago Canyon, the house he designed for Helena Modjeska has always seemed perfectly suited to its unique setting. Leave a Reply As You Like It | work by Shakespeare | Britannica.com As You Like It As You Like It, five-act comedy by William Shakespeare , written and performed about 1598–1600 and first published in the First Folio of 1623. Shakespeare based the play on Rosalynde (1590), a prose romance by Thomas Lodge . Touchstone and Audrey, characters in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, … Mary Evans Picture Library The play has two principal settings: the court that Frederick has usurped from his brother, the rightful duke (known as Duke Senior), and the Forest of Arden, where the Duke and his followers (including the disgruntled Jaques) are living in exile.

Rosalind , the Duke’s daughter, who is still at court, falls in love with Orlando , who has been denied by his older brother Oliver the education and upbringing that should have been Orlando’s right as a gentleman. To escape Oliver’s murderous hatred, Orlando flees to the Forest of Arden with his faithful old servant Adam. Soon Rosalind is banished too, merely for being the daughter of the out-of-favour Duke Senior. She flees to Arden accompanied by her cousin Celia and the jester Touchstone . Disguised as a young man named Ganymede , Rosalind encounters Orlando, lovesick for his Rosalind, and promises to cure him of his lovesickness by pretending to be that very Rosalind, so that Orlando will learn something of what women are really like. Oliver appears in the forest intending to kill Orlando, but, when Orlando saves his brother from a hungry lioness and a snake, Oliver experiences deep remorse. He then falls in love with Celia. Revelation of the girls’ true identities precipitates a group wedding ceremony. When word arrives that Frederick has repented, the Duke’s exile is at an end.

A group of forest inhabitants—William, Audrey, Silvius, and Phoebe—and the courtier Le Beau further round out the cast of characters, and an abundance of song complements the play’s amorous theme and idyllic setting. The play is considered to be one of Shakespeare’s “great” or “middle” comedies. For a discussion of this play within the context of Shakespeare’s entire corpus, see William Shakespeare: Shakespeare’s plays and poems .

Question: The Forest of Arden is the setting for which Shakespeare Play?
Answer: AS YOU LIKE IT